You are working in the Fleet Planning Department of a commercial airline operator (fixed wing or rotary). Your operator is planning to launch a new route to a destination it is not currently serving. You have been tasked with writing a business

Marcus Lane

24 Mar 2026 • 4 min read

EA301MAA Airline Route and Fleet Planning

EA301MAA Individual Assignment

Programme Name: Top-Up

Module Code: EA301MAA

Module Title: Airline Route and Fleet Planning

Semester: Fall

Academic Year: 2025-2026

Assessment Details and Submission Guidelines

Assessment Type	Individual Assignment (to be submitted in Business Report format)
Assessment Title	Fleet Planning
Purpose of the assessment (with CLO Mapping)	LO-1: Make rational choices in aircraft selection PLO: CS1/CS2 LO-2: Evaluate the global economics underlying fleet planning according to the market, constraints, and the airline’s need PLO: CS1/CS2/TS2 LO-3: Compute data to successfully carry out fleet planning analysis PLO: KU3/CS1 LO-4: Propose an appropriate fleet type for a particular market PLO: TS1/TS3
Weight	70% individual assignment relating to an airline’s fleet planning and airline’s fleet strategy and implementation
Total Marks	100% scaled down to 70%
Word Limit	2,500 – 3,500 Words
Submission Guidelines	All work must be submitted on Moodle by the due date along with a cover page. The assignment must be in MS Word format, 1.5 spacing, 11-pt Calibri (Body) font and 2.54 cm margins on all four sides of your page with appropriate section headings. Reference sources must be cited in the text of the report and listed appropriately at the end in a reference list using Harvard referencing style.
Due Date	Submit your report on Moodle – Similarity Percentage should not exceed 20%
Late Submission	Late project submissions will result in a penalty. A 7-day late submission results in a 10% deduction on the project marking; while a project submitted between 8–12 days late will be subject to a 20% deduction. Submissions after 12 days will be considered a fail on the project.
Academic Misconduct and Plagiarism	Plagiarism is defined as the presentation of another person’s work as your own. It is a particular form of cheating. Plagiarism must be avoided at all costs and students who break the rules, however innocently, may be penalised. Use of AI tools or ChatGPT is strictly prohibited. Assignments identified with a high percentage of AI content will be reported to the disciplinary committee and penalties will be applied accordingly. Emirates Aviation University considers plagiarism as theft and any student found to have plagiarised would be awarded an automatic fail for the piece of work submitted and may be excluded from further study at the University.
Instructor Name	Dr. Sevda Ahmadian
Moderator Name	Dr. Nidhi

Scenario

You are working in the Fleet Planning Department of a commercial airline operator (fixed wing or rotary). Your operator is planning to launch a new route to a destination it is not currently serving. You have been tasked with writing a business report to senior management that will:

(1) Identify a suitable destination and the appropriate aircraft and capacity to serve it.

(2) Identify and calculate key economic parameters to analyse the feasibility of the route.

(3) Make a conclusion for a go or no-go decision and recommendation on whether or not to launch, based on your analysis in (1) and (2).

(4) Write a personal learning paper on your experience and learnings from this assignment and the overall module.

1. Airline and Route Selection, Demand and Revenue Forecasts, and Aircraft Allocation

Choose an airline that you are familiar with and/or has a complete set of information easily available for research (e.g. annual reports, fleet configuration etc.).
Choose a destination that is not currently served by your airline but has potential.
Choose an aircraft: this can be a type that your airline currently operates, is planning to operate, or a new aircraft type (with considerations for new type induction).
Ensure the aircraft selected has the range, performance, and capacity suitable for the chosen route and airport.
Estimate passenger and cargo demand (by class) both ways between the hub and the new destination.
Establish a schedule for the new route (frequency, timing) considering time zones, hub connections, airport curfews etc.
Calculate the yield, sector revenue (passenger and cargo), load factor, RASK, etc.
Draw up a weight build-up chart for the new flight to verify assumptions.

2. Key Costs

Identify and calculate the three main direct operating costs: fuel, crew cost (cockpit and cabin), and aircraft cost (purchase/lease, depreciation).
Identify and calculate two other significant direct operating costs: e.g., ATC/navigation charges, ground handling, maintenance, inflight service.
Add any other relevant direct/indirect costs (e.g., marketing, route launch promotions, etc.).

3. Conclusion and Recommendation

Make a go or no-go decision based on analysis.
Justify your decision using appropriate metrics discussed in the course.
List any additional analysis or data that would help validate your decision further.

4. Personal Learning Paper

Write about key learnings gained from the module and this assignment.
Discuss the three most important aspects of Airline Route and Fleet Planning and explain their importance.

EA301MAA Individual Assignment Marking Scheme

Assignment Component	Marks	Main Activity	Learning Outcome(s)
1. Airline, route & aircraft selection	5	Choose destination & aircraft; justify against airline strategy & capability	LO4 (propose fleet type for a market)
2. Sector demand (passenger & cargo)	10	Forecast demand, evaluate revenue potential	LO2 (market/constraints/economics)
3. Flight schedule & frequency	10	Build schedule around demand, constraints, curfews, connections	LO2
4. Yield, sector revenue, load factor, RASK	15	Economic modelling of route profitability	LO2, LO3
5. Weight build-up chart	5	Payload-range, aircraft performance check	LO3
6. Main DOCs (fuel, crew, aircraft)	20	Calculate key cost drivers per flight hour/sector	LO3
7. Two additional DOCs (ATC, handling, maintenance, etc.)	10	Extend cost evaluation	LO2, LO3
8. Additional costs (marketing, etc.)	5	Broader cost considerations	LO2
9. Conclusion & recommendation	10	Go/no-go decision on new route	LO4, supported by LO2 & LO3 evidence
10. Personal learning paper	5	Reflection, identify key learnings	Not mapped to LO2–4 (generic personal outcome)
11. Report quality (format, referencing, etc.)	5	Academic writing and research standards	Generic assessment criteria

EA301MAA Individual Assignment

Assessment Details and Submission Guidelines

Scenario

EA301MAA Individual Assignment Marking Scheme

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